Social Cognitive Theory Post 2

With regards to Social Cognitive Theory, modeling is the foundation. The theory revolves around learning coming from observing others. A model however cannot always be effective, it must have relevance to the observer. A model is most effective when the observer can relate to this individual observing the behavior. This relationship can be through anything, but typically, behaviors are modeled more when there is similar age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Also, models are most effective when they are viewed as competent in the behavior being observed. 

A model in my classroom besides me as the teacher obviously, would be other students. Peers prove to be wonderful models to other peers. Different peers are also going to be more relevant models during different times. For example, a student may model off of one student in math because he shows strong skills in math, and may model off a different student in reading. Modeling peer to peer creates relationships and allows students to show their strengths. 

Society and culture influence learning from symbolic modeling. Models are found in the media via society. Celebrities, athletes, government officials, etc are all examples of different symbolic models. These people do wonderful things for the philanthropic world, and give back daily. This could teach classrooms how to come up with ideas of giving back, and coming up with ideas of helping the planet or people in need. 

Large scale cultural factors influence your students learning in different ways in the classroom. Being a female teacher, I will influence my students in the female gender way. This may mean that I am not on average the best at math because of this cultural sterotype. I also may not be able to understand cultural modeling factors from different places. A diverse classroom can teach modeling of different cultures and help other students learn. This may prove to be a disadvantage to the teacher if she/he has a diverse classroom, but learning new modeling tactics can help influence the learning. 

In my classroom in the future, a huge factor that will be in place will deal with having a positive attitude. This is something that must be a part of every student's daily activities, and trying to approach a lesson with a positive attitude will help students learn math and other activities even if they don't like to do so. I will prove to be the main model for this because each of my lessons will incorporate me having a positive attitude. My students can not learn from someone who doesn't want to be there and doesn't have a smile on. Therefore, my smile will always be present, and my students can model after this to approach each lesson ready to learn and try their hardest.